Long story, but, with patience, skill and blind luck, I got my Heron sailplane back with nothing more than a couple of minor dings on wing and a stripped flap servo. Thanks, also, to my "Faskenometer" - the variometer that Dave built for me!I had just about given up a couple of times, when I thought I detected the faint sound of my vario. I had even put the Tx away, then fired it up again!Was my baby still in the air somewhere? Was it on the ground nearby?

Louie persuaded me to come in his car to see if we could home in on the signal at a couple of locations on Fred Brown road. Nothing at all, so we returned to the field.

I shut down the Tx. Game over. Gary 0, Fate 1.

As I have told my boy and girl on occasion, when things look bad, "We Droppo never give up". So, I decided to wander over to the North of the field. Voila! The signal returned, faintly. So, I walked up the old County Road. The signal was there, constant. After awhile, seeing no sign of the aircraft, I headed in to the old landfill area. No luck. Before giving up, I would climb up onto the landfill plateau to get a better view. Warning! This is hazardous, with some large, hidden holes and metal scrap all around ... not to mention that our local Black Bears may even use some of those as winter dens!

Well, well, there she was !!! One wing standing up against a tree, the fuselage and other wing lying nearby. It looks like she landed at low speed,The wings separating as the Multiplex folks had designed it. Yay! Gary 1, Fate 0.

I owe a number of my comrades a vote of thanks for coming to my aid, trying to spot my sailplane, and especially to Louie for his driving skills. The latter effort persuaded me that the aircraft was North, not South of the field and led me to eventually head off in that direction.

Long story, but, with patience, skill and blind luck, I got my Heron sailplane back with nothing more than a couple of minor dings on the wing and a stripped flap servo. Thanks, also, to my "Faskenometer" - the variometer that Dave built for me!I had just about given up a couple of times, when I thought I detected the faint sound of my vario. I had even put the Tx away, then fired it up again!Was my baby still in the air somewhere? Was it on the ground nearby?

Louie persuaded me to come in his car to see if we could home in on the signal at a couple of locations on Fred Brown road. Nothing at all, so we returned to the field.

I shut down the Tx. Game over. Gary 0, Fate 1.

As I have told my boy and girl on occasion, when things look bad, "We Droppos never give up". So, I decided to wander over to the North of the field. Voila! The signal returned, faintly. So, I walked up the old County Road. The signal was there, constant. After awhile, seeing no sign of the aircraft, I headed in to the old landfill area. No luck. Before giving up, I would climb up onto the landfill plateau to get a better view. Warning! This is hazardous, with some large, hidden holes and metal scrap all around ... not to mention that our local Black Bears may even use some of those as winter dens!

Well, well, there she was !!! One wing standing up against a tree, the fuselage and other wing lying nearby. It looks like she landed at low speed,The wings separating as the Multiplex folks had designed it. Yay! Gary 1, Fate 0.

I owe a number of my comrades a vote of thanks for coming to my aid, trying to spot my sailplane, and especially to Louie for his driving skills. The latter effort persuaded me that the aircraft was North, not South of the field and led me to eventually head off in that direction.

Wow, that's so cool, who'd figure that something that high up would land so close to field? Youz one lucky guy.

This flight started out just as the ground boundary layer was reaching "trigger temperature", i.e., the point at which that air is warm enough to begin to rise, given the particular lapse rate at the time. I had just started the flight, had possibly located a good thermal and did a "stoopid" - I glanced down at the Tx or something like that and suddenly could no longer locate the sailplane. This can happen. That is why I urge folks not to distract me - or anyone else flying a glider - when they are flying. (It's hard enough to concentrate on a small object at a great distance, against a blue sky!). In this case, I have only myself to blame ...

The problem then was, where is the sailplane? Had it gotten caught up in that thermal which I though I had located? Has it spun? This particular sailplane will spin readily and requires a positive spin recovery, in my experience. IF it was still flying, it could have "cored" the thermal, which I believed would be very strong, and could well have been several thousand feet altitude. I estimated cloudbase to be in the 5000 foot range,considering the sun time and general environment at that time. I tried setting "crow" and commanding a steep and prolonged dive. I performed what should have been a spin entry, again hoping to catch a gllitter of its reflective strips. Likewise, I tried loops. As the vario was still active, I did not give up hope; however, the tone settled down, and no matter what I did with the Tx, it did not change in tone, only got weaker. Eventually, the tone vanished. I probably spent 1/2 hour to an hour, fruitlessly trying to possibly getting some kind of response, along with several others trying to spot for me. In retrospect, the sailplane probably descended in a slow turn shortly after I lost sight of it, encountering the tree just before it would have made really nice landing in the landfill clearing.